By T. D. Thornton
Jockey Katie Davis will be suspended from riding the first seven days of the 2024 Saratoga Race Course season after she opted not to appeal a “careless riding” penalty handed down by the stewards. The ruling follows the disqualification of her mount on the final Saturday of this summer's meet.
According to the ruling dated Sept. 17, the infraction occurred in Saratoga's sixth race Sept. 2, a New York-bred maiden special weight over 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Davis was aboard the 52-1 first-timer Vin Santo (Vino Rosso), who got disqualified from fifth to tenth (last) for causing interference near the sixteenth pole.
The Equibase chart explained that Vin Santo “swung six wide into the stretch, was bumped by a rival outside the furlong marker, came in significantly under a right-handed crop nearing the sixteenth-pole, had the rider's right hand slip off the rein while trying to correct, slammed into a foe causing several horses to have trouble, was taken up while corrected and missed the superfecta.”
Davis rode in 86 races at Saratoga this year, compiling a 7-5-9 record with earnings of $544,078.
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